August 14th : Gibraltar, United Kingdom (Territory)
This afternoon we will arrive in the United Kingdom’s territory of Gibraltar which has long been the ‘gates to the Mediterranean’.
The day started with a bit of housekeeping – hand washing a few items of clothes before a latish breakfast in the Oceanview Cafe.
At about 11am we split up; Toni went to bingo and Rob went off photographing areas of the ship not previously catalogued (e.g. the Equinox Theatre) and caught the end of John Johnson’s second stage stint.
At around 12:30pm we caught our first glimpses of the rock of Gibraltar. By 1pm we were making our way past the great isthmus fortress to dock by 2pm. At 2:15pm we departed from the ship on our tour.
Gibraltar
We drove to the cable car, but on arrival there was some technical issue which prevented us from ascending to the very top – very disappointing.
So, the tour continued from basically where we would have rejoined the shuttle bus at the upper rock – St Michael’s cave.
The cave is a natural formation which was discovered about 200 years ago.
It was converted into a makeshift hospital during world war II and now serves as a concert hall (for it has great acoustics) and as a tourist attraction.
After St Michael’s cave, we discovered some of the local inhabitants – Barbary Apes – who live around the upper rock region.
They were very well behaved (obviously accustomed to tourists) and we even saw some mothers with their young.
The next stop, the world war I siege tunnel, was interesting but perhaps a tad underwhelming.
Given the history on the rock, I think there might have been more interesting things to see, although it did complete the upper rock walk, assuming one had been to the very top.
The tour wound up after unsuccessfully attempting to use the cable car (it was being used for a wedding, bah humbug) we crossed the airport strip to the border of Spain before being dropped off in town.
We walked on foot back to the main church, then back through the main commercial district before returning to the Equinox.
The inability to use the cable car was a real blow to the tour, although the trip was not entirely wasted. Our guide was informative, but could probably sense the group’s disappointment.
The Equinox Theatre